May 2008

Evening Tweed is a Brighton based design collective, formed by four students at the University of Brighton. If the above image is any indication, all the work from these four is great. As a whole, the work is nicely varied and shows strong directions from each member. Lots of personality and experimentation going on.

Simon Perrin who recently won the Herbert Bayer Olivetti poster contest, just notified me of a website he put together which offers news, info, links to the relief efforts/projects and some of the fundraising initiatives for the recent earthquake in China’s Sichuan province. Simon was living in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, when the earthquake hit.

For those of you in Europe Steven Harrington has an artshow touring through Paris, Milan, Berlin and Barcelona. In conjuction with the tour Steven is releasing his first solo book.

In addition to the book, He is also releasing some custom shaped and designed limited edition element series decks, a paper toy and 10 new prints. You can check the tour dates, SH book info, day by day photo blog of the tour and in progress shots here at the Our Mountain website.

Tears of joy! It’s The Little Friends of Printmaking, Wisconsin’s #1 husband/wife design team super duo. LFoP are a Milwaukee based design studio whose work is really exciting and inventive. Each piece has a great story/narrative (and typography) that pulls you in. You can really tell that there is a lot of experimentation going on over there. I would love to see them get into motion graphics, a lot of this work is aching to be animated.

Their website is great too; it’s as engaging as the work. Lot’s of little things to look at and click at.

If you donâ€™t know what TypeCon is, it’s the leading conference in America on Typography. YouWorkForThem is curating a poster exhibit at TypeCon. They are looking for your best poster work that has excellent usage of Type on it. It can be the main focus, or minor. They will be displaying the best submissions and the poster show will most likely travel, like the last one did. Donâ€™t wait till last minute, send your entries over now! Please help spread the word, they want as many submissions as possible.

After discovering Iain Follett’s stamp collection was featured in Creative Review’s January 2008 issue of Monograph, I decided to contact him and see if he would be interested in sharing some of his favorite stamps on grain edit. He agreed and has graciously provided us with some choice stamps and his comments.

After discovering Iain Follett’s stamp collection was featured in Creative Review’s January 2008 issue of Monograph, I decided to contact him and see if he would be interested in sharing some of his favorite stamps on grain edit. He agreed and has graciously provided us with some choice stamps and his comments.

Annette Simon sent over two lovely books that I’ve been meaning to post. The first is Mocking Birdies which is the story of two fun loving birds that love to copy each other’s words and whistles. The birds are having a real hoot till a couple of “copycats” come along. Its’ a really funny ending so, you have to read the book to find out what happens. I love how she chose to illustrate the book. The bright colors and simple shapes really catch your eye.

Annette also sent a very touching book titled This Book is for all kids, but especially my sister Libby, which her 5 year old son Jack wrote. The book contains Jack’s thoughts and questions as he struggles to understand the death of his real life sister Libby. Libby died when she was three and half years old due to a rare disorder. Jack’s questions are honest, frank and often humorous. For parents and young ones that are dealing with a similar situation, I’m sure this book leads to some thoughtful discussions.

You can purchase either book at Amazon by clicking on the links above.

Ben Butcher of Pixar recently stopped by to give us a preview of the new WALL-E picture book Lots of Bots which he illustrated. The book is the precursor to the film, which is due to hit screens this summer. In the interview below, Ben discusses his thoughts and process in the making of this beautiful book. Where it was possible, we’ve included Ben’s original artwork alongside images of the finished book.

After the second World War many Latvian writers were relocated to different areas of the world. Many ended up in Great Britain, Canada and the USA. Living in these new lands they began their own periodicals and publication houses. A new generation of writers emerged. “Living in foreign lands and surrounded by other cultures, these writers strove to capture the influences of modernism.” * One of the magazines that surfaced during this time period was Jauna Gaita (the new course). IlmÄrs RumpÄ“ters who designed many of the covers of Jauna Gaita during the 1950s-1970s, wonderfully captured the spirit of this era.

Last night a few of us went down to the Parkway theater in Oakland to check out the classic blaxploitation film Bare Knuckles. The film stars Robert Viharo as Bounty Hunter Zachary Kane who’s on the hunt for a motorcycle riding, masked serial killer ninja! It doesn’t get any better then that!

Bare Knuckles is one of several films that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s GrindHouse flick. Tarantino loaned his copy of Bare Knuckles to Will Viharo (son of Robert Viharo) for the viewing. Robert was in the audience last night and joined his son on stage after the film. It was awesome to see this guy in person after he just kicked two tons of serial killer ninja butt a few minutes before.

One of my favorite parts of the film is Zach’s training session. One minute he’s whaling on a punching bag and the next he’s in the lotus position playing the flute! Now thats Bad Ass!

Check the soundtrack for the film as well. It was reissued recently. Vic Caesar put together a gritty funk masterpiece.

Brochure for the Rancho San Miguel (Walnut Creek,CA) Eichler development c1950s

In honor of the upcoming Birth of Cool: Mid-Century Modern design in California exhibition, I thought it would be nice to post this Eichler brochure. I found the brochure several years ago at an estate sale in Lafayette, California. I love the photo. Most likely the photographer is Ernest (Ernie) Braun.

Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcenturyâ€”opening May 17 at the Oakland Museum of Californiaâ€”looks at the painting, architecture, furniture design, decorative and graphic arts, film, and music that launched mid-century modernism in the United States, and established Los Angeles as a major American cultural center. The exhibition continues through August 17, 2008.

Birth of the Cool is accompanied by a 300-page illustrated book (published with Prestel Publishers, 2007), which provides a thorough reassessment of the era.

Many thanks to the good people at Tomorrow for stopping by last week, and for the gift of this beautiful bookmark. The bookmark is part of a promotional piece marking their recent contribution to “Trees for the Future“.

I recently received an email for this great new blog that focuses on Cuban posters. The site is a wonderful resource for posters produced by ICAIC, OSPAAAL, COR, Casa de las Americas and other cultural, political and social agencies in Cuba.

Mar HernÃ¡ndez aka Malota aka really cool designer living and working in Valencia, Spain, offers an extremely fun and inspiring collection of work for our viewing pleasure. Mar’s style is really bold and graphic, but very detailed and complex at the same time. She has a nice range of work — from very flat, computer drawn images, to a sketchier, looser, hand drawn style.

Salon Auto Geneve (Salon International de l’Auto) is an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. I admire Brun’s decision to represent the event in an a very abstract way. The white circles used as automobile headlamps look like they are derived from a compositional exercise in one of Armin Hofmann’s classes. This would make sense since Donald Brun taught at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule (Basel School of Design) along side Hofmann.